It is too convenient to blame ETFs for everything

Claims by doomsayers that exchange traded funds are fuelling the next financial crisis sound good but are wildly exaggerated

By

David Wighton

August 21, 2017 Updated: 12:02 a.m. GMT

In the early days of railways, doomsayers warned that passengers’ bodies would melt at such high speeds. Following the introduction of the bicycle there were deaths blamed on “excessive use”. And in the run up to the millennium, billions were spent combatting a computer bug experts said could cause planes to fall from the sky.

It is easy to whip up such scare stories about new technology, particularly when powerful vested interests...